Is A Guardians Of The Galaxy Cartoon In The Works?

Here's what we do know: Guardians of the Galaxy (the movie) is happening. James Gunn is directing it, Chris Pratt's abs will star in it and, apparently, it won't have much to do with Avengers 2. That leaves Marvel with a challenge, since the Guardians of the Galaxy characters aren't exactly household names like Captain America or Iron Man. While Marvel has launched a new comics series featuring the Guardians, could an animated series be in the works as well?
So far, there's little to go on other than a hint from Marvel Comics editor Stephen Wacker, but it was a rather large hint. In the letters column in the most recent issue of the Guardians of the Galaxy comic (via Bleeding Cool), Wacker revealed that he was "luck enough to sit in on a writing summit" for Disney XD's Ultimate Spider-Man. Here's where Wacker gets cheeky about whether a Guardians of the Galaxy cartoon is in on the way or not. "Now, look, I can't officially confirm that we spent a LOT of time talking about Guardians of the Galaxy at this animation summit, but wouldn't that HYPOTHETICALLY be... amazing? Seriously though, don't ask me about it because it totally didn't happen."
So it would seem that Wacker is at least heavily suggesting that a Guardians cartoon is in play, but apparently he won't be taking any questions about it. However, creating a cartoon to help familiarize younger audiences with characters like Star-Lord (Pratt), Gamora (Zoe Saldana) Drax the Destroyer (Dave Bautista), Groot the walking tree thingy and Rocket Raccoon, the pistol-wielding, talking raccoon, just makes sense. Should a Guardians of the Galaxy cartoon eventually get made, it would join Marvel's recently launched Avengers Assemble, which made Falcon it's lead character on a team that is otherwise filled with characters from the Avengers movie. The character of Falcon will appear Marvel's other 2014 movie, Captain America: The Winter Soldier (played by Anthony Mackie), and was a pretty smart marketing move by Marvel. A Guardians cartoon would also allow for Avengers Assemble characters to show up for cameos (Iron Man is a member of the Guardians team in the comic), which would only help expand exposure for Avengers 2 as well. And if anyone can fall in love with a talking raccoon, it's kids.
In the meantime, there will be a movie, and, besides Pratt's abs becoming a sensation on the world wide web, Gunn was also spotted hanging with a raccoon on set, while John C. Reilly in reportedly playing Rhomann Dey, the leader of the Nova Corps. More details are to come, as Marvel works to finish Guardians of the Galaxy before August 1, 2014. Since that release date is only a little over a year away, hopefully some clarity over a Guardians cartoon will be arriving soon.